16,000 Strike In Eastern Germany

May 4, 1993|By New York Times

BERLIN — Eastern German metalworkers went on strike Monday to back their demand that employers come through with a promised pay increase that would bring pay levels in the east much closer to levels in western Germany.

It was eastern Germany's first legal strike in more than 60 years. Strikes were outlawed under the Nazis and then by the region's Communist rulers.

About 6,000 steelworkers in Brandenburg state near Berlin began walking off the job shortly after midnight and were joined by 10,000 steelworkers in Saxony state at the start of the morning shift.

Strikes were reported at six steel mills and 20 metalworking companies, including local subsidiaries of large western German companies such as Volkswagen and Siemens.

The main issue is how fast eastern German metalworkers' pay will be brought up to the level of their western German counterparts. That issue appeared to be resolved by a 1991 wage agreement between the IG Metall metalworkers union and employers that called for a series of increases leading to rough parity by the end of 1994.

But employers balked at handing out pay increases averaging 26 percent scheduled for April. They argued that eastern Germany's low productivity, combined with the current recession throughout the German economy, left them no choice but to cancel the contract.

The average cost of labor in Germany is more than $20 an hour, the highest in the world. The past year has brought extensive layoffs in the auto, steel, coal and textile industries in western Germany.

Franz Steinkuehler, the president of IG Metall, Germany's largest union, said the strike would spread in three weeks to all eastern German metal and steel companies if no settlement was reached.

Speaking at a May Day rally in Oberhausen in western Germany's Ruhr industrial area, German Economics Minister Guenter Rexrodt said eastern Germans should show more flexibility and not demand wage increases at any cost.

Strikes, he said, ''do not help if a wage increase can only be bought with the ruin of companies and the loss of jobs.''